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By MARY KEARL
Diane Kress, R.D., C.D.E. and author of the new book "The Metabolism Miracle: 3 Easy Steps to Regain Control of Your Weight ... Permanently" offers unsuccessful dieters a highly appealing explanation for failed weight loss attempts. Kress believes that the weight-loss programs themselves are to blame, claiming that diets don't work for 45 percent of dieters because they have a different kind of metabolism, which she calls "Metabolism B."
According to Kress, unlike those with "Metabolism A," calorie restriction doesn't help those with type B. Instead, she posits that people with "Metabolism B" have metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of symptoms including high blood pressure, cholesterol, trigylcerides and blood sugar and fat that collects around the waist. These people, she says, can eat all the calories they want, but need to watch their carbs -- both how many they eat and when they eat them. "Metabolism A" and "B" are not actual accepted medical terms, but we were intrigued by Kress’s argument and decided to dig deeper. See what she -- and other metabolism experts -- have to say about "Metabolism B" and meet some dieters who followed her advice and have reported losing weight.
"Metabolism B" and Metabolic Syndrome -- a Connection?
While metabolic syndrome has been a known health issue for 25 years, the cause -- a hormonal imbalance that leads to excess insulin production -- was only recently discovered, Kress notes. "Insulin is a fat-gain hormone, so it stands to reason that if your body is making more insulin than it should, you're going to have more fat on your body than you should and you're going to have more fat in your blood vessels, higher cholesterol, higher triglycerides and your blood pressure's going to go up," says Kress.
Thus the two-part "Miracle Metabolism" diet -- an initial eight-week low-carb program to ease the stress on the pancreas -- the organ that makes insulin -- and step two, which introduces what she calls "low-impact carbs" -- things like whole-wheat pasta, multigrain breads and fiber-filled fruits and vegetables, which she says must be regulated throughout the day to keep your pancreas from being overloaded with insulin.
What Experts Have to Say About "Metabolism B"
Kress may be taking liberties with some of the exact science, says Stuart Weiss, M.D. and assistant clinical professor New York University School of Medicine, but he thinks that her plan has the potential to help dieters. "We do know that people who are at risk for metabolic syndrome do respond to a low-carb diet, with improvements in their metabolic parameters." And while he notes that pancreatic rest has not produced enough solid real-world results in the laboratory, "clinically it seems like it should work."
"She's right about two things. Certain carbs are more prone to push out more insulin," leading to fat build-up, says Ray Samoa, M.D. and endocrinologist at City of Hope hospital. Another potential benefit of following this diet is that, "If you lower blood sugar by eating more complex carbs, you won't get as much toxicity from higher carbs." He cautions that while this "makes sense with somebody with diabetes or pre-diabetes, the glycemic index is something that is not well established so it needs a lot of investigation. But anything that increases fiber seems to be a benefit for someone with metabolic disorder."
The Carb Counting vs. Calorie Counting Debate
As long as you're regulating your carbs -- spreading your "low-impact carbs" throughout the day, you don't need to count calories, says Kress. "The calories are not the issue, [you] could [follow] an 800-calorie diet, but if carbs make up 80 percent of your calories, you're never going to lose an ounce because your body is over-processing that carb," says Kress. "Not eating carbs will cause weight gain too. If you don't hit a minimum of carbs, the liver is designed to self-feed blood sugar … [at] the equivalent of a bagel's worth of carbs. So [you'll learn to eat the] carb amount that is restful to the pancreas, which will lead to weight loss every time for a person with Metabolism B."
Reducing calorie intake may not always work, agrees Dr. Weiss. "When there is insulin resistance in diabetes, the initial dietary changes do not necessarily produce weight loss. It may however change body-fat composition -- causing clothes to feel looser."
Dr. Samoa and Keri Gans, R.D. and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, caution that recommendations call for a well-balanced diet -- one that is balanced in carbohydrates, healthy fats and lean proteins.
"The benefit of a low-carb diet is still being evaluated, [but] the thinking is that it induces a low-insulin secreting state which in turn reduces appetite," says Dr. Samoa. "Insulin in itself is an appetite stimulator. There are so many things that influence insulin -- in regards to hormones, stress levels, one's eating habits, but low-carb diets try to manipulate this to induce weight loss."
Are There Really Two Types of Metabolism?
"I can't say based on science that there are two types of metabolism," says Gans. "There is research that supports metabolic syndrome [is a health condition]. The diet for metabolic syndrome would be basically a well-balanced diet. Part of a healthy diet that works for everybody, is monitoring all our nutrients -- not just carbs ... For what I can find, what she is saying might be truly anecdotal ... She does have years of experience and she is a registered dietitian, so perhaps she has seen [this hold true] with her patients."
Metabolism Miracle Diet Success Stories
Scott Seiferheld
Starting weight: 195 Lbs
Current weight: 175 Lbs
Growing up, Scott never had a problem with his weight. Then when he hit his mid-20s he gained weight around his middle, without any major lifestyle changes. Next his LDL cholesterol (bad) level went up, as did his blood glucose level. It took him eight weeks on the first phase and eight weeks on the second step to get to the weight he wanted to be. He lost 20 pounds, five inches off his waist and dropped from a size 36 jeans to 32.
Losing the weight and reigning in his carbs saved him from getting diabetes and high cholesterol. He has maintained his weight and been at his desired weight for over a year now. He feels like a different person, says Kress.
Melissa Ricca
Starting weight: 280 Lbs
Current weight: 210 Lbs
This former high school star track athlete came to visit Kress to obtain approval to get a gastric bypass. She was done trying to lose weight. Sidelined by injuries and surgeries during her high school days, stress and inactivity brought on the symptoms of Metabolism B for Ricca. is one of the things She had the stress of the injury and the stress of the surgeries. Though Ricca had tried everything from calorie counting to Weigh****chers, Kress asked her to dedicate three months to her "Metabolism Miracle" program. "She gave me the three months, and she came back and said 'I feel great. I don't' want the bypass.'"
Over a two-year period she dropped from a size 24 to a 10 to 12 and lost over 50 inches off her body. Kress adds that the bypass most likely would not have been effective for Ricca -- or anyone with Metabolism B -- because a year after having the procedure done the stomach will stretch to the size of a cup, which can fit enough carbohydrates to affect your pancreas, and with that your insulin and fat-burning abilities. "At about two years after the bypass if you have Metabolism B you'll start gaining again," Kress says.
Tara Grande
Starting weight: 265 Lbs
Current weight: 189 Lbs
"Tara came in with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a disorder that shows up very often with young girls where their periods are very heavy and they have bad PMS," and can also lead to weight gain and trouble losing weight, says Kress. "Tara struggled with weight for years. She had tried everything. She was beside herself."
"When I met her, she wore sizes 22 to 24, now, a year and a half later, she wears a 10 to 12. [More than that,] she has self-esteem. There are two different women who visited me. Original Tara who slumped in my office saying, "I can't take t his anymore," to Tara now, who feels like she has her life back together."
What are some of the signs that you're a Metabolism Type B?
Symptoms include overwhelming fatigue, where you feel exhausted even after a good night's sleep; having the urge to nap about one to two hours after eating a meal; a feeling of never being able to get full; a mild depression, not related to a chemical imbalance, but instead related to blood sugar levels dropping throughout the day; anxiety in the face of depression; memory problems; craving carbs; and midsection fat.
For people with Metabolism B, is diet more important than exercise?
"If you have metabolism B, and you follow only the diet, and you say 'forget the exercise,' you're going to lose more weight," says Kress. "Someone hearing that statement would say 'Eureka! I'm going to diet and not exercise.' But it's because you're losing fat and muscle tissue. If you exercise you lose fat and maintain every ounce of muscle and tone. With exercise, it doesn't have to be aerobic. You could do yoga, bike riding, gardening, cleaning your garden. As long as your muscles are moving 30 minutes a day over and above your normal muscle movement, you'll maintain your muscle mass."
How do people stay motivated through the program, which consists of a minimum of two eight-week steps?
"The first three days as your body adjusts to the insulin level going down, it's like a withdrawal, you have cravings and irritability," Kress explains. "By the end of the first week you already start to feel better. The driving force of this doesn't become the scale -- it comes from [increased] energy. People [try the program] to lose weight, and they do, but they also get their lives back."
Stuart Weiss, M.D., assistant clinical professor New York University School of Medicine, cautions, however, that despite the fact that he advises his patients to stick to low-carb diets, he knows that most people find it difficult to maintain them. "If the diet persists for a while the weight loss will follow. It's really about the socialization of food that makes things problematic."
A Dietitian's Metabolism Challenge
Excerpted from "The Metabolism Miracle" by Diane Kress, RD, CDE. Available now from Da Capo Lifelong (www.dacapopress.com), a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2009.
You know who you are. You have suffered through liquid diets, portion-controlled diets, calorie-counting diets, point diets, fat-free diets, carb-free diets, grapefruit diets and doctor diets, only to regain every pound you lost. You sit at weight-loss support meetings next to people who succeed while you do not. You are an expert in dieting. You can recite the calorie content of foods without glancing at a book. You have tried, over and over.
Yet you have known for a long time that something is very different about your body. Others eat twice the quantity of food that you consume and they weigh much less than you. No matter what the doctors and nutritionists say, you insist that you must have a different metabolism.
You are right.
I know this, because, like you, I have this different metabolism and it confounded me for much of my life. I have spent more than 25 years as a registered dietitian specializing in weight loss, prevention and management of diabetes and cardiovascular nutrition. Only after my own health declined and I pieced together clues from years of personal trial and error, the experience of thousands of patients, and current medical research, did I finally find the answer.
As a nutrition counselor with a thriving practice, I knew everything there was to know about diets; I could configure them in my sleep. I prided myself in following a balanced, healthful diet. I exercised regularly and practiced what I preached. But as I entered my thirties, my body changed.
At a routine physical exam, a nurse told me that my consistently low blood pressure had increased to the normal zone. Shortly after, my cholesterol and triglyceride levels began to rise, regardless of exercise and a low-fat, low-cholesterol lifestyle. Soon, even as I counted every calorie that passed my lips, the numbers on the scale began to creep upward. Worse yet, I noticed a small roll of fat around my middle!
I followed the guidelines that I had been taught were the key to good health. Like my patients, I monitored my calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium and I exercised faithfully. Despite all of this effort, I continued to gain weight and eventually needed medication to help control my blood pressure and cholesterol.
Finally, just before my fortieth birthday, I developed type 2 diabetes. What had happened? Nothing I did would stop this train! Despite my attempts to do everything by the book, my body would not respond. I finally felt the full force of the frustration and emotional pain that my patients endured.
The experience led me right back to the traditional nutrition theories that I had been teaching my patients. This time, I dug into the research, analyzed the nutrition "wisdom," and looked at the patterns that fit my successful patients and unsuccessful patients. I tested out new approaches, threw out those that didn’t work and came up with confirmation of what I had come to suspect: It was clear that one segment of dieters responded to the traditional approach. The other needed a very different and new approach. The "Metabolism Miracle" is that approach.
In the traditional school of thought, a person will gain weight if he or she consumes more calories than are burned off. Most weight loss diets are based on this "law of calories." The fewer calories a person consumes, the less he or she will weigh. Add physical activity to the equation and weight loss accelerates. But the law of calories didn't apply to all of my patients. I have counseled thousands of people over the years and worked equally hard with all of them. Yet I noticed something that deeply concerned me. More than 45 percent of those I counseled never achieved their desired results.
Most weight-loss advice recognizes only one metabolism, the version every medical student and dietetics student is currently taught. I call this Metabolism A. But as I failed to lose weight on standard diets written for Metabolism A, and as I watched many of my patients fail to lose weight on those diets, it became clear that we were working with a different animal, a metabolism that I refer to as Metabolism B. This alternative metabolism requires an entirely different approach and that is how the "Metabolism Miracle" program began to take shape.
You may be familiar with the labels metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. Together with a host of other signs that may seem unrelated, including fatigue, sleeplessness, mild depression and anxiety, these conditions point to Metabolism B. The split between dieters with Metabolism A and Metabolism B is almost even. More than 45 percent of those struggling to lose weight were born with the genetic predisposition to Metabolism B. The onset of their symptoms is slow and progressive and may be expedited by a number of life events, including stress, weight gain, illness and hormonal changes.
Individuals with Metabolism B will never succeed at following a traditional diet because their alternative metabolism follows a different set of rules than those of the standard metabolism. In fact, attempting to lose weight using a traditional approach can set off the downward spiral of unchecked Metabolism B.
Within the first few weeks on the "Metabolism Miracle"program, I felt like a new person, with higher energy, looser jeans and no cravings. Within the second month, my doctor eliminated my hypertension medication and decreased my medication for cholesterol. Eventually, I no longer needed any of my medications and my blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and diabetes remained under good control! I felt great and friends told me I looked ten years younger.
"The calories are not the issue, [you] could [follow] an 800-calorie diet, but if carbs make up 80 percent of your calories, you're never going to lose an ounce because your body is over-processing that carb," says Kress."
If you eat 800 calories, you will lose non-water weight no matter what the carbs are from if you burn more than 800. That's just basic inalterable physics.
And even in starvation mode, adult humans won't drop their BMR that low.
To say something that ludicrous calls into question Kress' book for sure.
But it doesn't make it any less true that that people vary a lot as to their metabolism. And some people's metabolism is such they should eat a low carb diet.
lose - (verb) to rid oneself of
It is good to see some people have different metabolisms recognized. I do believe that there is no "one size fits all" metabolism description. That is pretty well demonstrated daily here on this message board. Some people seem to do fairly well eating quite a few carbs. Others (ME) go into a total stall with just a minimum of carbs. My impression is that the people who are less carb sensitive are younger, or are "lightweights" who have not had there insulin endocrine metabolism totally screwed up yet. I think that most people on this board who got big enough for surgery probably ARE insulin resistant, way more than the 45% in the article.
Dr Mercola also is a big proponent of "nutrition typing". That people have their own unique ideal mix of protein, carbohydrates, and fats that is best for their body. http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/index.htm
Atkins was the first low-carb diet approach I remember seeing. South Beach, Sugar Buster, and this Metabolism Miracle all seem to have rather similar approaches, and all can work to take off the weight. Again, The biggest difference between these different diets seemed to be adjusting the amounts and sources of "not evil" carbs. The big question is controlling the carb cravings once you are off the weight loss phase. NONE of these diets have done well with that.
Hopefully our tiny tummies will supply the last piece of the puzzle in keeping it off.
Nearly everyone says we should seriously limit sugar and refined grains though. Please pass the HFCS, the best of both! (NOT)
CAUTION: Make sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouth into gear!!
Starting Weight 354/ PreOP 335/ Current 249/ Goal 195
